Next question, please. . .
How does Defoe represent a community falling apart? What are the most important techniques he uses to convey the disintegration of public/community bonds?
Throughout the entire novel, Defoe begins to create a fascinating web of description pertaining to London. Of all of his descriptions, he takes the most time and effort (at least that is was I believe) to portray the disintegrating city of London. He uses what feel like broad, almost panoramic, views of London and describes the desolation and the emptiness of the streets. From here, you can actually feel how alone and somewhat paranoid he must feel. From his descriptions, the claustrophobic (and sometimes xenophobic) tendencies of London come alive. For example,
“It would pierce the Hearts of all that came by to hear the piteous Cries of those infected People, who being thus out of their Understandings by the Violence of their Pain, or the heat of their Blood, were either shut in, or perhaps ty’d in their Beds and Chairs. . .” (Defoe 155)
From this, we can have a sense of how London is being run. The reason the people are not on the streets is because that they are all locked in their houses; either because they have no choice in the matter, or because they are fearful of their lives.
However, it is later stated in his book,
“And some of these were the People that walk’d the Streets till they fell down Dead, no that they were suddenly struck with the Distemper, as with a Bullet that kill’d with the Stroke. . .” (Defoe 159)
People are funny animals because they are so hypocritical. They always make the assumption that they are immune to a certain epidemic. They believe that it will never to them and therefore, in that sense, make the disintegration of community more evident.
As to the public bonds, he easily depicts the corruption of some of the government officials, the fear of the public workers, and the total lack of respect that the people have for the watchmen, the nurses, etc. Quite frankly, he gives them a sort of curious respect (insofar as the fact that he writes that many of the people were not justified in some of their actions towards the watchmen in particular.) His criticism of the method of isolation and quarantine (although fairly justified in it’s approach) sort of exemplifies the pinnacle of questioning - this in essence becoming a sort of ultimate “rebuttal” and final dissolution to the government of the time: a questioning that would have been persecuted at that time and would have led to his eventual death.
So, in general, Defoe uses techniques that widen and make London seem more desolate, he uses the screams of the “inflicted” to portray the wretchedness and despair of the people (those that could not walk about the streets), and also, he uses the people that do walk about to sort of exemplify the idiocy of human nature: to illustrate the fallacy of the human mind to think that one is safe. The streets were littered with the infected.
Throughout the entire novel, Defoe begins to create a fascinating web of description pertaining to London. Of all of his descriptions, he takes the most time and effort (at least that is was I believe) to portray the disintegrating city of London. He uses what feel like broad, almost panoramic, views of London and describes the desolation and the emptiness of the streets. From here, you can actually feel how alone and somewhat paranoid he must feel. From his descriptions, the claustrophobic (and sometimes xenophobic) tendencies of London come alive. For example,
“It would pierce the Hearts of all that came by to hear the piteous Cries of those infected People, who being thus out of their Understandings by the Violence of their Pain, or the heat of their Blood, were either shut in, or perhaps ty’d in their Beds and Chairs. . .” (Defoe 155)
From this, we can have a sense of how London is being run. The reason the people are not on the streets is because that they are all locked in their houses; either because they have no choice in the matter, or because they are fearful of their lives.
However, it is later stated in his book,
“And some of these were the People that walk’d the Streets till they fell down Dead, no that they were suddenly struck with the Distemper, as with a Bullet that kill’d with the Stroke. . .” (Defoe 159)
People are funny animals because they are so hypocritical. They always make the assumption that they are immune to a certain epidemic. They believe that it will never to them and therefore, in that sense, make the disintegration of community more evident.
As to the public bonds, he easily depicts the corruption of some of the government officials, the fear of the public workers, and the total lack of respect that the people have for the watchmen, the nurses, etc. Quite frankly, he gives them a sort of curious respect (insofar as the fact that he writes that many of the people were not justified in some of their actions towards the watchmen in particular.) His criticism of the method of isolation and quarantine (although fairly justified in it’s approach) sort of exemplifies the pinnacle of questioning - this in essence becoming a sort of ultimate “rebuttal” and final dissolution to the government of the time: a questioning that would have been persecuted at that time and would have led to his eventual death.
So, in general, Defoe uses techniques that widen and make London seem more desolate, he uses the screams of the “inflicted” to portray the wretchedness and despair of the people (those that could not walk about the streets), and also, he uses the people that do walk about to sort of exemplify the idiocy of human nature: to illustrate the fallacy of the human mind to think that one is safe. The streets were littered with the infected.